Jitterbugs spring performance!

Today was Christian's spring Jitterbug performance! They did danced to four songs- "If I Only Had a Brain" the scarecrow song from Wizard of Oz, "Broadway Babies", "I Like to Move It, Move It" from Madagascar and "The Chicken Dance Song".

Christian is on the left. What a cute scarecrow!

Look at all those chickens! :)

I also got a little visiting time with my girls this weekend! Last night, I went over to Dara's house and had pizza and visited with Allison and Susan too! Then Saturday afternoon, my friend Tasha and her mom came up to Northwest Arkansas to visit Dara and I and our new babies! Tasha is expecting a baby girl, Violet, due in September!

Tasha opening her baby gifts from me and Dara

After Andrew and I got home and had dinner, we decided to give Andrew his first bath in his baby tub! He has outgrown and is too close to rolling over to bath him on his bath sponge anymore. I can't believe how fast my baby boy is growing!

He had been fussy most of the day but absolutely LOVED getting a bath in his tub! He even smiled! (of course not in the picture I took--he mostly looks shocked in all the pics I take!)
I love my sweet baby boy!

Memorial Day weekend!

I would love to report that we had a relaxing Memorial Day weekend but for those who know me, I stay BUSY, BUSY, BUSY! We did not travel anywhere, but we stayed home and worked on a unexpected home project. ;) With all the rain we had the past month, we had water leak into our downstairs bedroom. Our carpet was soaked about 2-3 feet into the room. It was caused by a combination of dirt and mulch levels being too high against the house (after our recent yard revamp) and our gutters over flowing and pounding water into a concentrated area. Sooo, we dug the dirt away from the house and replaced dirt with rock to help with drainage and the concrete foundation has been sealed from the outside. We also had all of our gutters cleaned out as well. Since we are having to replace the carpet, I decided to go ahead and paint the room before we put down new flooring.


The walls were a basic off white before I painted. We are turning our guest bedroom into a guest room/office/playroom. We are getting rid of the old furniture and decor and have purchased a computer desk and are putting a day bed into the room to allow more space for the boys to play.

Here is a picture of where we cut the wet carpet away from the walls. Yuck!
Our carpet won't be in until 7-10 days. Can't wait! I will post pics of the room once we have finished the project! We also cleaned out the wall of closets in this room and got rid of a ton of stuff! We are planning a garage sale for sometime in mid-June.

Even though our weekend was full of hard work, we did have some fun! Jim cooked out steaks for us on Sunday and they were WONDERFUL! Monday night, he cooked brauts out on the grill and they were yummy too! Christian loved both the steak and brauts!

I took Andrew on his first stroller ride through our neighborhood the one day it did not rain. Jim's parents gave me this Razorback umbrella stroller for Mother's Day! Andrew loves to be outside. Sometimes when he is fussy all I have to do is walk outside onto our deck and he calms down right away.

Isn't he just the cutest??!!!

Graduation!

Today Christian had his daycare preschool graduation!

GoGo, Grandmother, me and Andrew

He was so excited to show his diploma to Grandmother!

Christian was so excited that Andrew was at his graduation...even though he slept through it. ;)
We are so proud of our big boy! I can't believe kindergarten is right around the corner. When Christian walked in wearing a cap and gown, I started crying! He has grown up so fast. I wish I could hit a pause button.
(FYI...scroll down to see pictures from his Tiny Tots preschool program!)

Dog tired...

This past weekend was busy one for us! Saturday morning we had our first family pictures taken. I will post some of the proofs on here soon for everyone to see. Some of them are hilirious but I think we got a few good ones. ;)

After pictures, Christian had a birthday party to go to at Jump Zone. After that, he came home and was so tired, he slept for over 2 hours!

Saturday night, we went to go see "Fiddler on the Roof" at Walton Arts Center. It was amazing! It was Topol's farewell performance and he was great!
Sunday afternoon we worked outside, cleaning off the deck and patio. I went and got my ferns and planted my herbs. Now our yard is officially ready for summer!

Our upstairs deck

Our backyard patio

view of our backyard from upstairs deck

My hostas are doing great and our grass is so green. I think summertime is FINALLY here!

Tiny Tots Graduation!

Monday was Christian's graduation from Tiny Tots, his preschool program.

He was so excited! He wanted to look handsome and made sure he put gel in his hair before he left the house. ;) Pops and GoGo joined us for the graduation program. Ms. Tina talked about all the things they had learned that year. They sang their favorite songs for everyone!



Mom and Andrew watching the program as dad works the video camera!
Thanks Pops for taking the pictures!

Christian receiving his "diploma" from Ms. Tina

Christian, Andrew and GoGo

Later that afternoon, I headed up to my office to attend my friend Crissy's wedding shower.
Her wedding is in just a few weeks and I am a bridesmaid. Hope and I put together all the shower goodies...

Congratulations Crissy and Jason!

The next American Idol???

Christian has practicing his songs for his preschool graduation ceremony that is next week.
I have been amazed how many songs he has learned this year. Each week they learn new songs and he sings them in the car and in the bath tub. Last night before bedtime, I asked that he sing a few for me.
Here are a couple of my favorites...

God Bless America

This Land is Your Land

Mom's Ministry 2008-09

Yesterday was the last class meeting for the semester of my bible study group, Mom's Ministry.
This year has been a great year! I am so glad you all enjoyed my "Money Matters" study this past fall and thanks to Laura and Ama for leading studies this spring! I don't know what I would do without the love and support of this wonderful group of women! Now it is time for me to start planning our lessons for next year! Can't wait for the fall! :)

One month old!

Today Andrew is one month old! He is an absolute doll! He is so sweet and cuddly! He makes the sweetest "coo" sounds. He gets fussy at times especially when he is tired, but is still my sweet boy! What is it with babies and trying to fight off sleep??? Sleep is good!
I took him to get his picture made at Legacy House yesterday. They have a program called "Baby Club" where you take your baby to get their picture made each month for the first year. I did it with Christian and loved all the pictures they took, so I signed up Andrew too. There were a couple I really liked and may use as our birth announcements. :)

Well, as you can see, my blog updates have not been as frequent since I have been so busy taking care of Andrew. The past few weeks we have been blessed to have wonderful friends bring us dinner almost every other night! It has been SO helpful! I have been spoiled to all of their cooking! Thank you to everyone!

This past Friday night, my friend Susan who is a chef, cooked us dinner. Her husband Brandon and daughter Ruby brought it to us since she was not feeling well that night.

Jim & Andrew and Brandon & Ruby

This past weekend we went to the annual "Spring Deck Party" at my co-worker Jamie's house. It is a spring get together of all the trade desk associates and we eat lots of food and play games. Luckily it did not rain, but was still pretty cool outside. This year, the party was kid friendly being so many of us now have babies and small children. Christian had a blast playing with Audrie (Jamie and Rachel's little girl) and Ashlyn (John and Stephanie's little girl). I am sorry to say I did not take any pictures because my hands were full holding Andrew and eating yummy food! ;) Thanks to Jamie and Rachel for having us over!

On Mother's Day, we all went to church together for the first time as a family of four!
Andrew was sooo good. He was bright-eyed when we got there and were showing him off, then he slept through the service. ;) It was such a special Mother's Day for me and I had happy tears as I held my two boys! After church, we went to Van Buren to have dinner with Jim's family.
Here is picture of Christian and I on Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day!

Hope everyone has a wonderful Mother's Day!

Here is a video of Christian singing his "Mother's Day Song"
He is kinda a wiggle worm while he sings ;)

Christian, the big brother!

Christian has been doing so well adjusting to having Andrew in the house. He loves to hold Andrew and talk to him. He likes to play in the floor of his nursery while I am feeding Andrew in the glider. When Andrew cries, he says "I'm here for you Andrew! It's me, your big brother!".

So cute. Christian has one week and 2 days of preschool left! After that, he will be home with me and Andrew all summer before starting kindergarten. Time flies! Just look at these recent pictures of my big boy...

And here is a picture of his Tiny Tots preschool class...

Christian is in the front row, 2nd from the left

Above is Christian daycare class. Christian is in the middle of the 2nd row.
His graduation ceremonies are in a couple weeks. I will share some of his drawings and writings on the blog along with some fun videos soon!

Time fore fun, now time to relax...

As you can see from my last post, we have been busy "going and doing" in the first couple weeks of Andrew's life. :) On Thursday morning, I brought Andrew to my women's bible study group so they could meet him. I have really missed being with my ladies the past couple weeks. I was so glad we were able to do so, even though we were almost an hour late. Getting ready and out the door with a baby takes a lot of work!
This past Thursday evening, we drove down to Fort Smith to have dinner with Jim's family to celebrate Jim's mom and grandmother's birthdays. It was a yummy dinner but Andrew did not want to stay asleep through it, so it made it a bit stressful, but we were so glad we could make it to be with everyone! Andrew slept all the way down there and all the way home. :)
On Thursday we gave Andrew his first bottle with formula and he took right to it!

With Christian, we waited way too long to try to give him a bottle and it was a struggle, he was around 3 months old. Jim and I are realizing parenthood the second time around is much easier. Experience makes a huge difference!

This a a blanket from our church and burp cloths from the staff at Christian's preschool for Andrew! I just love them!

On Friday, was my church's annual Women's Gala slient auction and dinner and I really wanted to go. So since Andrew was taking to a bottle, I was able to attend!


All the tables are decorated with a theme and each year I am always so impressed with everyone's creativity! I sat at Ama and Jennifer's table with the theme of Ama's home country, Ghana in Africa.

And as crazy as it sounds, Saturday morning, Andrew and I went down to David's Bridal in Fayetteville with Hope to help my friend Crissy during her final bridal gown fitting. We also shopped for bridesmaid shoes and found some cute silver strappy sandals with a heel.
After that, Hope and I had lunch and stopped by the only indoor spring craft fair at the Frisco Station Mall. It was very disappointing, so we went to Hobby Lobby and I got ribbons to decorate Andrew's curtains in his room. Andrew ate and slept well that whole day of running around!
Saturday night, we had tickets to the Rogers Little Theatre production of "Rumors". We had been looking forward to that show, so Hope was more than happy to babysit for us. It is hard to believe that our first evening out, Andrew was almost 3 weeks old, whereas Christian was almost 3 months old before we ever went out for the evening. There again, parenthood is a lot easier and more laid back the second time around. ;) Andrew did great for Hope and Christian was her big helper!

Andrew has been such a good baby. He sleeps so well and loves to be swaddled. (see smile on his face above!) He eats well and loves to sit in his boppy pillow and look out the window to our back deck. He likes to sit in his crib and watch his Ocean's Aquarium fish swim with lights and bubbles. But most of all, he loves to be held and we LOVE to hold him. Many afternoons, he sleeps on our chest while we sit and watch a movie or take a nap ourselves. He also likes to sit in his bouncer for a morning nap.

This is Jim's last week of paternity leave and he goes back to work tomorrow. :(
I will miss having him here with me and Andrew all day!

and Andrew will miss having dad during the day too!